Plant-Based Diet for a Healthy Heart

Whenever I tell anyone that I eat vegan food, they assume that my diet is healthy. I love to eat healthy food, every day. Even though my diet is vegan, I tend to consume white rice and sweets such as burfis , cookies , kheers and payasams every day! In short, I may eat vegan food every day, but I'm not eating healthy food.

February is American Heart Month , and millions of Americans are trying to eat more plant-based food . According to American Heart Association, "Vegetarian diets can be healthful and nutritionally sound if they’re carefully planned to include essential nutrients. " American Heart Association's website is brimming with loads of useful information.  www.heart.org

Proteins :According to American Heart Association(AHA), whole grains, legumes, grains, vegetables, and nuts contain proteins. Soy products such as tofu and tempeh are also rich in protein.

Iron : According to AHA, dried beans, spinach, enriched products , and dried fruits are rich in Iron.

Calcium :Studies show that vegetarians absorb and retain more calcium from foods than nonvegetarians do. Vegetable greens such as spinach, kale and broccoli, and some legumes and soybean products, are good sources of calcium from plants.  I roll my eyes when moms across the world force their kids to drink "dairy milk" for calcium. For my son, I mix 1 tsp of sesame seeds to vegetables or rice once or twice in a week. Sometimes, I also put ground almonds, as it is an excellent source of calcium.

Vitamin B12 : Some studies have shown that Vitamin B12 is very important for a healthy heart .Vitamin B12 is present only in animals products. If you are a vegan or planning to consume more plant-based food every day, I suggest you take Vitamin B12 supplement. I take Vitamin B12 supplement made by Jarrow Formulas. www.Jarrow.com
AHA also urges people to consume foods rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin A

Zinc : Zinc plays an important role in protecting the heart . I take Zinc supplement whenever I sense the onset of cold . A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling tired and had a runny nose. I just ate my dinner and took a Zinc supplement, and slept in the night. In the morning, I was fresh and did not
suffer from nasty cold!

Dark chocolates are good for Heart. Dark chocolates are rich in antioxidants. Today is Valentine's Day, I ate a bar of yummy dark chocolate. You get great dark chocolates at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Target.

Samosa

Samosa is a  popular snack from Indian cuisine. I love to eat samosa with sweet tamarind chutney.  I always order samosa for appetizer in restaurants. Whenever we go to Hanuman Mandir in Alpharetta, we go to Amma's Kitchen. And in Amma's Kitchen, we order Samosas for take-out.

A couple of days ago, I made Samosas at home. I followed the recipe from  Manjula's Kitchen
.The samosa was awesome! I used homemade garam masala. My son also liked the samosas very much!

If you are not inclined to do the dough for the samosa, you can use puff pastry sheets. For a healthier version of samosas, you can bake. Samosas are really a great snack, and you should try it!

50 Million Vegetarians in China

I'm so happy that many people across the world are eating plant-based food. According to a latest survey, there are about 50 million vegetarians in China.

It seems many Chinese are thriving on plant-based diet to protect wild life. Some Chinese are inspired to become vegetarians because of vegetarian celebrities such as Natalie Portman and Faye Wong. Young Chinese want to stop the suffering of millions of animals by eating plant-based diet, good for health and our beautiful planet Earth.

Our world will be a better place if everyone eats plant-based fare every day!